Shinobi Definitions
by dreamscapenymph
Summary: 26 letters of the alphabet. 26 definitions of what happened before, during, mostly after. many pairings, sasusaku, nejiten, naruhina, among others. some unrequited. mostly fluff.
1. sasuke, naruto, sakura, sasuke, hinata

/i…tried this 'genre' (?). and everything was just so random and whatever. haha. I've finished one whole round, and would be posting five per chapter (as long as it's not _too_ long. any word suggestions for a part 2 of this? and i think i crossed my eyes with the numerous levels in this thing.

own this i do not (not even yoda-speak. woe is me.)/

Shinobi Definitions

[i.a.] sasuke._naruto_.sakura._sasuke_.hinata

1. Apathy

-is what they say Itachi always feels (knows, wants, craves). But no. It was never apathy. He was far too sympathetic and involved, _too fucking loyal_, Sasuke thinks, that he has sacrificed everything (_himselfhimself, himself especially_) just for the sake of his ideals (_and Konoha, who would forget Konoha?_). Sasuke's eyes blaze red, and he wonders if he can turn it on someone who is already dead, someone whose eyes cannot open anymore (and also if, by the way of a mirror, he can turn it on himself, and end this bloody road he feels _compelled_ to take, no matter how he feels).

2. Bastard

-is what Naruto calls Sasuke, even though that is who he essentially is. Freakin' Yondaime never married his lover even though it was (painfully) obviously clear Naruto was insistent on being born. Even after he was born the freakin' ex-Hokage had died on him, making him _the _bastard. He can't help but feel a tiny sting of pain whenever he calls Sasuke that, but it has certainly mellowed down once he punched the Yondaime when they recently met (though he can't really say, since the person he had branded as bastard wasn't around to test the theory).

3. Cherry Blossoms

-were the origin of her name, her mother tells her. Sakura smiles (fake!) and waits for her mother to turn around before rolling her eyes heavenward and Inner Sakura exclaims _duh, Mother!_ But what irritates her more is that she's alwayalways_always_ compared to it—weak, fleeting. She clenches her fist and steels her nerves—she wants to talk to Tsunade today (she wants to be strong—to be strong and _forget_, though in truth she can't, and won't).

4. Denial

-has to be the answer to one of the worst jokes in history, and he's had the misfortune to be the brunt of that joke for three_freakin'_years already, and _I get it people!_ he wants to scream. But Sasuke doesn't because he is not like that. He just calmly answers, "she is the one I can tolerate the most," and nobody believes him. Nobody, including himself. He sighs. Maybe he is the epitome of the horrid answer to that horrid joke.

5. Eloquence

-has been drilled into her ever since she was a child and spoke her first word (_dada,_ not that it mattered anymore, _but still it hurts to not deliver what is expected, _though she tries her hardest, until now). But this is also what she loses whenever she sees a flash of yellow hair and blue eyes out of the corner of her eyes (_ohmygod! hinata what is wrong with you? I am a pureblooded female! _ino shrieks at her prone figure on the floor. she can't hear—she's already drowning in hazy dreams of bright yellow and blinding blue and brightbright_bright_ smiles).


	2. kunoichi, sasukex3, hinata

Shinobi Definitions

[i.b.] kunoichi._sasukex3_.hinata

6. Femme Fatale

-is what they essentially are, as kunoichi, wives and mothers. The men might think otherwise, but they don't know who manipulates them without their knowing (_we are women hear us roar!_). Enough said.

7. Green

-is what he feels when he sees that mighty self proclaimed _beast_, in that horrendous jumpsuit of the same color, chatting amiably and calmly (not! he was flailing around with youth and daisies and whatever) with _her_, her eyes the same color, but not really, since they seem to change shades and intensity whenever her expressions and feelings change. He hides the clenched fists in his pocket and tries to keep the red from appearing in his eyes. He didn't know if he can, though, and he amuses himself with the nonsense conclusion of how fast green can turn to red (_and_ the nonsense daydream of little children with green eyes flashing into red).

8. Happy

-is what he finally_finally_ feels. It's that warm feeling that has bubbled metaphorically, somewhere above his stomach and below his throat (he can't claim it's a heart, _yet_) the first time he saw them, his teammates and teacher (they were _never_ ex or former), all battered and bruised but _smiling_, when he set foot in Konoha again, persuaded (if not determined) to start over.

9. Innocence

-was what he thought he had lost completely about fourteen years ago. But look at him now, shy and embarrassed and _fumblingfumblingfumbling _(through buttons and zippers and _whattheheck_ tight chest bindings?). He didn't know what to do, how to start, how to make it comfortable for the both of them (weren't they supposed to be in love? wasn't _love_ supposed to suffice in these situations? he failed to see the difference between love and lust and _despaired_). His eyes widened ever so slightly when everything was stripped away and all he could see was green, pink and flesh. _Well, all innocence gone now, goodbye_, he mused, and couldn't help but add that _there's another thing that redeemed me as a human being, an iota of innocence_ as he placed his shaky hands on her shaky shoulders and pushed her gently towards the white, clean, pristine bed.

10. Jalapeno

-by the hundreds is what she feels (and looks, she's sure of it) she has eaten once she saw _him_ again. It didn't help that he looked taller and much, much more confident of himself. Her knees were locking themselves together as she hid behind the corner, stealing furtive glances at her teammates that were talking casually to him. She fingered her long hair and cursed herself. _Hinata!_ She could hear her teammates and _him_ calling out to her, looking for her. She hid. As she always did.


	3. sasukex2, sakura, sasukex2

Shinobi Definitions

[i.c.] sasukex2._sakura._sasukex2

11. Karats

-of gold he could buy her, but happiness not. So he didn't. Instead, he just "hn"-ed every conversation and hoped that that was enough for her, because after all, he was still Sasuke and she was still Sakura, who was supposed to be the one trying her best to understand what that monosyllabic expression meant. Even until now, he still "hn"-ed and all but shoved the ring to her nose (he ignored the fact that his "hn"s were starting to get more frequent, that his facial expression would change _ever so slightly_, that she could almost _almost_ fully understand him now, as she smiled up at him, green eyes greener than he had ever seen them before, accepting the ring wordlessly before softly asking him to put it on her ring finger).

12. Letters

-put into paper, that was what the dobe had suggested he do to tell her about his not-so-hidden feelings. He had _tried_, really, walked her home after every shift in the hospital (_hell_, even the graveyard ones), but she just attributed it to Team Seven's characteristic protectiveness of her. He gave her numerous items with the uchiwa fan emblazoned on it, but she postulated that it was just because he was cleaning out the compound. It was so glaringly obvious it already hurt his eyes (and pride).

(_the whole of konoha know about it already, dobe, don't tell me she doesn't even have an inkling?_

_sakura-chan doesn't hope anymore, teme! no matter how obvious you may be, she has learned not to assume!)_

Ah. So that was it. Tired of everything else (and also of the dobe's stupid suggestions) he just cornered her one day and blurted out, "Sakura I love you. Now take out your spazzing Inner and freak out in front of me so I can kiss you and ask you to marry me to shut you up."

That they did.

13. Men

-had yet to notice her subtle beauty (well no it wasn't really subtle, more like men had to look beyond the clashing colors that was called her face to see something remotely resembling beauty. she sighed, even in looks, she was still a stretch). All of the other girls had already been branded and stereotyped—Ino the relentless, sharp-tongued beauty, Tenten the tomboy everybody has a secret crush on, Hinata the epitome of classic femininity—while she was well, nowhere. But she decided she wouldn't have it any other way, since she wasn't looking for any man, actually. The _Sakura, to wait for him is just…pathetic,_ was delivered in a soft tone, not judging, just…matter-of-fact (ino was definitely over sasuke now). Even Tenten and Hinata nodded. But she couldn't help herself (_wouldn't_, really). Perhaps if _he_ came back she'd be able to sort out her feelings and have some closure (though she had agreed with her inner's scoff at that thought). Until then, _bah, men_, she'd go, clinking her shot glass with her girlfriends.

14. No

-was what he always answered, whenever she asked him a question, _any_ question. _Will you go on a date with me, Sasuke-kun? _No. _Will you train with me, Sasuke-kun? _No. _Take me with you, Sasuke-kun!_ No. _Come back, Sasuke-kun!_ NO. (even her effervescent declarations were met with an emphatic _NO_) But now, _why now of all days?, _when everything's perfect, when there are no more snake-men and double agent brothers and what-could-have-beens were successfully laid aside (never forgotten though, _never forgotten_), why couldn't he say no to her question of _Will you please let me go, Sasuke?_

15. Ocular

-powers unparalleled they had, but for all its fabled power, the eyes bestowed upon him didn't warn him of the tragedy that had befallen the chunk of the town where he lived. Nor could it change the past. He couldn't do anything. So for now he'd just lie low and wait, wait for the power that he needed, to avenge the ones that he loved the most.


	4. kakashi, tsunade, ?, tenten, kunoichi

Shinobi Definitions

[i.d.] kakashi._tsunade_.?._tenten_.kunoichi

16. Pictures

-were the only remnants they had of the Sasuke-that-had-been. The Sasuke that they recently saw was not the Sasuke they knew. It was the embodiment of his revenge that they had all fought against when they were still kids, the embodiment of the personal demons that they had struggled against, all of them, and have yet to overcome until now. Kakashi looks at the wrinkled photo he hides in between the pages of his now-rarely-read orange book and closes both of his tired eyes, struggling not to think about the what-ifs, what-could-have-beens and what-I-could-have-dones (and the i-am-an-idiots that were squished somewhere in between those three).

17. Queen

-of Konoha is what Tsunade is. After all, it was her grandfather and granduncle who practically brought Konoha to life, and being Hokage was in her blood and veins. Yet they still called her Tsunade-hime, even though everyone she knew _then_, who were far more superior than her, were now dead (gone, gone with the wind, everyone she loved, and all that's left of her is a glamour, an image of what she was _then_, that _she can't let go of, lest she forget the pain and the happiness that was associated with it)_, making her the most superior of all. She should be called Queen Tsunade instead. Yet she doesn't bother to proclaim that particular edict (though she's sure people will follow, _hell yeah she rules with an iron hand, even if it isn't clenched into a tight fist_), because deep in her heart she misses the people who made her worthy of being called _princess_, and once in a while she daydreams that maybe _they _were the ones calling her _princess_ now.

18. Reveling

-in her pale skin, worshipping her curves, was what he did whenever he thought she was sleeping, in the hours of after satiation when she almost always falls asleep first because of fatigue from the hospital (and from his attentions of course, he could smugly attest to that). He would run his fingers a mere millimeter from the hairs of her arm and watch them rise, as she would slightly stir in his arms. He would trace the air above the curves in her hips, the dips of her breasts and the small of her back, and watch as she snuggled deeper into him. He would sigh softly and place a kiss at the crown of her hair. Content, he would go to sleep. These pre-sleeping ablutions of his were intimacies he wouldn't dare let her see. _Maybe in a year or so, Sakura._ _Good night._

19. Scrolls

-of gigantic sizes were where she hid everything, her weapons, her supplies, their mission, _everything_. It was also where she hid her feelings for him. Tucked somewhere underneath the folds of her old genin clothes (for that was how long she had hidden her affections for him) inside her closet was an old and overused papyrus scroll (for that was how fragile her feelings were) filled with girlish scribbles of what happened during their training sessions (well actually they were more logs and accounts than girlish scribbles, _whatever, _she was still Tenten the tough, even if she could no longer ignore the pounding of her heart whenever he was near), and hearts and stars and o's and x's (yes, she is still a girl, even if her callous hands and scarred body might say otherwise).

20. Tun

-was what Hinata called the large vats of alcohol that they had consumed during that month's girl's night. Honestly, Ino didn't care, but Sakura, the brainiac that she was, asked Hinata where the _freaking_ origin of the word was. The other girl had shrugged and answered that she had read it in one of _Neji-nii-san's_ (tenten couldn't help but sneer, her problem with his…_indifference_ was reason four point oh eight of why they made this girls' night girls' _drinking_ night) books. Sakura was flailing about, because _i don't know the freaking word and would now spend sleepless nights about it—_SHUT UP FOREHEAD, that's why the alcohol's here _it puts you to deep, nonsensical sleep_ AND DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT SOBERING JUTSUS THEY ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF HEALTHY CHAKRA. With Sakura properly admonished. Ino turns to smile beatifically at everyone and asks, who will go first? Or do we have to pull out The Bottle? (The Bottle, yes, with unavoidable capitals, was something they found on a beach when they had been running from lee and gai's enthused exclamations about their skimpy bikinis and _can-I-take-pictures-of-you-pretties?_ The Bottle, being washed onto the shore and being _full of vodka_, was their redemption from the two utterly _green_ nogoodniks, and they had kept it in rotation ever since, for good luck, for reminder about how to avoid green lecherous beasts while wearing skimpy bikinis that threatened to drop if they even thought of fighting against the two, and for _crucial_ decisions about whose problem was going to be discussed first) Hinata sighed and raised her hand up (alcohol always did a good job of loosening her tongue), "Naruto-kun, _scratch it_, Naruto, is really _dense._ Do I give up or do I give up? Men are _hopeless_." Affirmative sighs echoed throughout the table, along with clinks between four shot glasses.

/? would mean anybody and everybody. pick your own character (preferably guy! haha). and…i'm sort of tempted to write about The Bottle Incident haha. /


	5. neji,shikamaru,tenten,kakashi,iruka,naru

Shinobi Definitions

[i.e.] neji._shikamaru_.tenten._kakashi_.iruka._naruto_

21. Unwritten

-still is the rest of his life, so he had heard in a song Tenten was humming under her breath. It jerked him back to the time during his first Chuunin exams, when he was jarred back from his self-created fate-centered world by none other than Naruto. Back then he had believed everything was premeditated, and that he was under the control of the clan head just because he was born in one of the branch houses. He could recall the thought with a bitter taste in his mouth. He wasn't that naïve anymore. For years, he has returned to reality, to believe that everything was still unwritten, and that he had the power to write his own life story. He looked over to the brown haired girl sharpening her weapons in his own floor, her waist length hair unbound and free (it had only taken two days with her for him to discover that she considered sharpening _all_ of her weapons a sacred act, and would do so with her hair unbound and stripped down to her chest bindings and undergarments). He could remember the way they had gotten together—it was his decision to act on the feelings he was starting to have for her, and he had laid everything on her lap, giving her the choice of accepting him or not. Neji leaned on the wall and watch her as she concentrated, her tongue flitting in and out of the seam between her lips. He was going to keep her, clan be damned. His lips gave the barest hint of a smile. It was good to be free.

22. Vision

-was what they called her, an angel descended from heaven. Her face and features were what angels are supposed to look like, he could hear them gush, with blue eyes and platinum blonde hair that almost looked as if it was white (so does that mean that if naruto's hair was more white than yellow, he could also be deemed as an angel? shikamaru shook his head at the preposterous thoughts invading his mind. he wasn't up to par today). Until she opened her mouth, and all of the seasoned insults would come flying out of it, that is. Then they would cringe and scamper away, amid the shouted declarations of _FOREHEAD!, LAZY ASS!_ and more. Shikamaru shook his head again, and concluded that they really didn't know Ino and her ways of showing affection. He walked up to her and draped an arm around her shoulder. "What's up with you, lazy ass? Why do you have the energy to be more boyfriend-like today?" He rolled his eyes at her and glared at the shadows behind the buildings, where he knew they were still hiding. They might think that she's their pretty, but she's his pretty spitfire.

23. White

-is the color of his eyes. At first glance that is. Only someone like her, who is close to him as close could possibly be, could notice and tell that they were actually the subtle gray of the sky when a light shower has just passed. And that they were a shade lighter than the gray veins that popped around his eyes whenever he activated the trait their clan was famous for (he had been reluctant to do it for her when she asked, but after much prodding—and snuggling—he had acquiesced. she couldn't help but think that perhaps the girls—and his cousin, _especially _his cousin—were right, that this was just more than a series of one night stands for tired_frustrated_ shinobi, and that he adored her, as she undoubtedly adored him too. _heck, what was with the verb? love, it was love! it had never been adoration in the first place!). _And the lavender flecks that were visible when he looked at her intensely, which he was doing now (hell, that was her proof, if she even needed more).

24. X

-denoted an unknown, and that was what Kakashi was to many citizens of Konoha, particularly the shinobi. _What makes him tick?_ was one of the questions often asked behind his back. They knew he was a weathered pervert, just right after Jiraiya the Master himself, but what made the layer underneath (or perhaps the layers underneath the layers, with Kakashi no one ever knew)? Genius as he was, he didn't know either. All he knew was that he was just there to protect. _And to prevent history from happening again_, he reminded himself. He could see a lot of his former genin team in the only one that he had handled, and he knew that only _another_ big tragedy would allow Sasuke to realize what Kakashi has realized about teamwork and his teammates. If history were to mock him again, it would be the deaths of Sakura and Naruto that could turn Sasuke into good. _But then history has a way of mocking me two times over_, Kakashi thought, and he wouldn't be surprised at what Naruto's stubbornness might bring to the table. He sighed, for now he would wait and protect, in his own subtle way.

25. Yellow

-was the color of his hair, the exact same shade he had inherited from the Yondaime, his father. He was also the exact image of the dead Hokage, and Iruka wondered if the village had forgotten what the legendary Yellow Flash had sacrificed—his title, his life, his family, his son. Iruka was just a strapping lad in his teens when the incident with the nine tails had happened, but he never forgot the momentary hesitation in the Yondaime's countenance when he delivered the message that the beast had been seen outside Konoha. Hokage-sama had left then, and instructed him to watch his son and bring him to the battlefield. What happened next was a blur to the young Iruka, but he would always remember the way that the baby with the shock of yellow hair on its head grasped his finger tightly, his blue eyes looking at him steadily. Until now, he held to his heart Namikaze Minato's instruction: to watch out for Naruto and bring him to the battlefield.

26. Zealous

-is what Naruto is when it comes to Sasuke. It could even be called a dogged determination to bring the said boy back to Konoha. What he ignored was the possibility that Sasuke wouldn't want to go back to the village anymore. Sakura had given up, wanting to kill him by herself. Kakashi would just look on; content to help Naruto fight his fights, though he wouldn't say a thing about the matter (but naruto knew he was worried and concerned). Jiraiya told him he was foolish. But Sasuke was a friend who had been there for him while he was at the bottom of the pedestal (albeit with insults and violence, but still he was there, which could never be said about the people who brought him into this world), and now it was Naruto's time to return the favor to him. He was bringing him back, no matter what.

/yuh. round one finished. i wonder if i could keep this up for a long time? lol./


	6. tsunade,sasuke,orochimaru,kakashi,sasuke

/really, now, I'm back?/

Shinobi Definitions

ii.a. [tsunade._sasuke_.orochimaru_.kakashi_.sasuke]

1. Affinity

-, apparently, was one of the things she shared with Naruto. The Senju clan and the Uzumaki clan of the Land of the Whirlpool were connected by blood. How fitting for the bloodline of the Hokages to be almost royalty. Each end every one of them were linked by either blood or mentorship. Or both, in the case of Uzumaki Naruto. No wonder she didn't have the heart to truly bash his head in whenever he screamed "BAA-CHANNN!" into her ears.

Nah. It was just mercy on her part, Tsunade thought as she looked fondly at the blonde that reminded her of life, hope, and so much more.

2. Best friend

-was Naruto. Or that's what he thought, even though he rarely vocalized it. But apparently not, because he couldn't kill the dobe, and he wasn't the one who had given him the mangekyou. It was his brother, who had led him in a merry, bloody chase around the world, seeking for retribution when in truth there was none. Naruto wasn't his best friend—it was _he_, the traitor-who-was-not. Once more, he was given a peek into the heart he never thought existed inside his chest.

3. Craving

-for rotten human flesh, that was what Orochimaru longed, lived and toiled for (after all, he never backed down from what was expected from him. except for that one thing that was against his…values if they could be called that. he would never be made leader of the village that forced him to see the rotting corpses of his parents and the indecipherable screams and the long sleepless nights. and had turned him into the closet monster that he was. _or perhaps that's a nice thought. after all, why not lead into destruction the village that made me into this?_ he thought). But the first time he saw her again, his eyes were riveted to the ample bosom, (it was _so_ characteristic of her to have _everything_ in excess) and he appreciated them besides the fact that they weren't rotten flesh at all. As he allowed himself a brief moment of rare hormonal insurgence and admiration, he noted that they were as white as unadulterated porcelain (never mind what actual hell that porcelain went through to get to what it became), and seemed soft to touch.

(_and people_, he snarled in his mind, _contrary to what your insane brainless skulls might propagate, i am _NOT_ gay. thank you._)

4. Deceased

-were they, but he never failed to visit them, every day of his life, and if not, every chance he got. As the rain started to pitter-patter slowly, then quickly, into his bloodstained vest and shoulder and hands and _heart_, Kakashi wondered when he would stop living for dead people, and when he would start living for himself. He glanced at Hatake Sakumo's name briefly, and the thought reinforced itself. He sighed, gripped the spine of the old book he always carried, but would never dare to open in this sacred place, and said his goodbyes to the people who changed him. For the better perhaps? Yet that made him into an empty shell. _When would he stop living for the dead?_

A few months later, as Kakashi watched three little kids struggle to be the best while still being together, he had his answer.

He just didn't know it yet.

5. "Email

- is how we are going to communicate with each other, Sasuke-kun!" Was her reassurance that he would still be a part of her life, and Sasuke had just hn-ed. But two weeks later, he hadn't written, she hadn't written. He didn't because it was too impersonal and all that he wanted was her smell, her smile, her brightness, her anger, her frustration, her healing, _her_. He missed her. Awfully. It wasn't something that written words contracted into the most economic way possible could alleviate, when Sasuke knew that the only solution was _her_. The dobe had been surprised, the ramen slipping off the spoon while it was halfway into his mouth, when he heard the news, "Sakura-chan hasn't emailed you yet? We've been emailing like, every other day since she left." He had been surprised, too, for he thought that he would've been the first person she contacted.

Later that night he was fiddling with the phone in his hands, decided against it, packed his bags and left.

Imagine how wide her sleepy green eyes became when she saw him at three am the next morning.


	7. minato, ?, neji

**Shinobi Definitions**

ii.a. [minato._?_.neji]

* * *

6. Family

-were they, but only for mere minutes, before he was forced to go into the fray that was called war, as was his duty as the Fourth Hokage. He could see her, limp red hair damp with sweat from the glorious birth and the cantankerous release of the demon, hugging their son to her as tight as she could manage with her unmoving limbs. Perhaps it was the determination of a father or that of a Hokage, but he would surely vouch for the former, that made him don on the robes that he usually disliked wearing (they were heavy and not ideal for transportation, though they did add a fairly noticeable flair. besides, kushina would laugh at him snidely behind his back, saying it looked horrible on him, though she would always pounce on him after, smelling his neck). His knuckles cracked, his robe on, his determination and fury in check, and he was ready. _I'd be back before you know it._ He fervently prayed to the nonexistent gods that when he was back, the minutes that they had together as a family would be longer.

He doubted it.

7. G-spot

-_was that what they called it_? She couldn't think of anything else as her damp hands grasped at the pristine sheets, at the sinewy arms, at his hair damp with sweat, at the abdominal muscles that defined a shinobi. And that was the last thought that crossed her mind as she saw stars and breathed hard and gasped the name that only she had the right to gasp, after years and years of admiring and longing and loving, _finally_, both of them were home.

8. Hair

-was her weakness, and that was why she cut it off. That was what he heard when he had awaken from a (naruto-induced) haze that had inverted all that he thought he had believed in. He had fingered his tresses (yes, he at least merited the hair that could aptly be called that)—never had he regarded his hair as _that. _He was the one who had regretted her pink hair the most (albeit it was a silent regret, who knew what his peers would think if they knew if was a silent connoisseur of hair?). After all, he had secretly regarded her hair as one of the best in the village (as the years had passed, and as the yamanaka girl had taught her the uses of a ribbon, it had become more beautiful and he would go as far as saying that it was now on par with her best friend/teacher).

It was shortly after that incident that her team faded away in the dust left by the tracks of two males with ambitions only rivaling each other's (and a teacher who had never so much as looked at her as a kunoichi), and she had volunteered herself as the apprentice to the Hokage.

For a little while he had rejoiced because she had let her hair grow again. But it was swiftly gone when he saw how she had impatiently swiped it off her face as she ran a swift hand glowing with chakra over the wounds on his chest (bare, and the fact that she hadn't shied away from it when most girls would blush at the sight of him naked, was witness to her professionalism). A week later she cut it (the pink silk had reached the middle of her back already, he had thought with much shame). He overheard his cousin ask her why. "It was in the way," she had answered, shrugging. She didn't seem to care about it anymore. He regretted that lost hair all the more.

Then he saw her in action. For lack of description, he thought of her as a living bulldozer, able to tame the earth with her fists and uproot gigantic oaks. Yet the black-gloved female Shiva could also unleash a smile as bright as he-who-had-turned-his-world-upside-down (and yes, he has realized that being two-faced are one of the valid reasons on why to fear the female population). In a flash, his admiration for her hair was displaced to admiration of her strength.

He could just wish that it wouldn't be misplaced into admiration of her (because he knew that was dangerous territory). After all, it was common Konoha knowledge that she was already unavailable, whether _he_ came back or not. But he was fast losing this battle with himself, as he found himself unconsciously searching for a head with pink hair whenever he went outside. Even his cousin was surprised when he started going to the hospital after missions, instead of going home and insisting that he was fine (he himself didn't know when he started to stop searching and looking and _just went to her_). He was quite content with their casual friendship (that he sometimes hoped that the last uchiha will never come back, but he knows that that's just him being selfish, that he wouldn't be able to give her as much happiness as _he _could). But hidden feelings left smothered for so long tend to erupt and explode with all the subtlety of a homemade bomb, and even if he was one of the people who sported infamous indifference, he never held out against time (it was three years, he held out for_ freaking three years!_). He told her. _I love you. _Blurted it out.

She smiled, and commented, "I was beginning to wonder if I assumed too much."

"So you-"

"Yeah, for a while already I was wondering if you had feelings for me."

Silence.

It was awkward for him. He had no idea how it was for her; he still had to hone his skills in the art of understanding her. He waited. She was shuffling the reports she held in her hand (he had come to fetch her from the hospital again) and selected one. Then she looked at him again and opened her mouth (and he steeled himself for rejection) to say slowly, her eyes serious and unhesitant, "If you're serious, I'm willing to try."

He blinked at her.

She was smiling, nodding at the disbelief present in his eyes. Her eyes were shining, and her short, cropped hair had never looked as glossy and as pretty as it was before.

He had never thought himself so blessed.


	8. hinata, jiraiya, neji, sasuke, kushina

**Shinobi Definitions**

_two(c)_

hinata._jiraiya_.neji._sasuke._kushina

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_9_ Innocuous

-was how she looked, with the thick fringe that hid her face from the world, the eyes that would look blank to anyone who had no idea of the deadly options it brought to the user, and the perpetually shy mouth that didn't speak unless spoken to. Innocuous was how she seemed, stuttering with every other word, turning beet red whenever she felt extreme emotions. No one knew she could paralyze with just a thrust of her hand. No one knew she could seek out a person no matter how hidden they were. That shy, sweet, innocuous Hinata was the ace of Team Eight.

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_10_ Jiraiya

-was what they called him. But in truth that was not his name. No one knew his real name. It was only he who knew it, he who knew that the kid that he taught and showered with subtly hidden love was his actual son. And that he secretly yearned to be called grandfather by his grandson-no, he was not _sensei_, nor was he the godfather, nor was he _ero-sennin_. He was _dad_, _grandfather_. Too bad he would never reveal it though.

It was a good thing they took after his wife's side and had yellow hair.

**_._**

_11_ Kismet

-was another word for fate. He knew, for he had studied them all, in the dusty tomes of the clan library, in the vast library in the Hokage's tower, in the books Tenten had smuggled to him from who knows where, silently handing them over to him, seated in the darkest room at the branch house,

Always, she'd stay silent, leaning her right shoulder against the wall beside his window, looking out at the deserted Hyuuga clan grounds, the pale, feeble light granted by the moon washing over her face. And as he always did, he cast the book aside, frustrated at its lack of instruction. At the slight shuffling sound he would look up—and find that her brown eyes were trained on him, frustrated, too, for he will always be slow to heed whatever instruction _she_ had for him on the subject—_you are the own master to your own fate, Neji._

_****__._

_12_ Last name

-was, in the end, all that he could give her. For all of the power that he had gained and the goals he had attained he couldn't give anything to her but a last name. He never said it, but she knew (for she knew him inside out, more than he thinks he knows himself), and one day she just told him, "I don't care what your name is, even if you're…(she paused, then continued, as if struck by inspiration)…Uzumaki Sasuke (he couldn't help but flinch at the thought of sharing genes, and therefore brain cells, with the idiot) or Madara's relative, you're still you. I don't care about your last name, I just want you." He just looked at her, with her shining eyes and gentle smile and thought, _she is my redemption_.

**_._**

_13_ Mix

-of fairytales was their story, that of Sleeping Beauty's famed hair (albeit of course hers was a fiery red), Belle's lesson about a different take on feminism, and Hansel and Gretel's leaving crumbs on the path to be followed. And for some reason, although Kushina knew she was strong and didn't need to be saved, Minato always ended up carrying her princess style and setting her down on a comfortable bed.

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_Hey everyone, how's it going lately? _


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